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Col, tie your boat up properly, sit back and enjoy the weather.

Having to drop in and out of gear is ridiculous. Any boat should go fine at 2mph and I see no reason to go much slower past boats unless someone is actually in the process of tying up or, like here on the Caldon, the canal is barely two boats wide. Or it's six in the morning & I'm trying to be quiet, though I do wonder if they'd rather I went quicker and got further away faster... And if someone's permanently moored in the middle of a mile or two of linear moorings, tough. Set springs or buy a bungalow.

If you've moored such that it requires boats to move so slowly that they have to constantly drop into neutral, then you either need to moor somewhere else or moor properly. Consideration works both ways. One who understands boatmanship won't have a problem mooring more sensibly.

Brentford long ago. 1920s?

Not had much time to update as I'm back at work having viewed the boat first thing and it's 120 miles in the wrong direction to work! It's a lovely boat. Obviously well cared for and kept immaculately. I understand the owners' used it a lot but kept on top of it. Nothing alarming found - false bottoms of cupboards etc pulled out, everything's dry. Paint is in very good order for the year. Negatives are the galley. It's smaller than it appears on the photos and not a lot of cupboard space. Same with storage in general for liveaboard use, it's lacking but I'm sure fine for leisure. And although it seems trivial, there's nowhere for a washing machine to go. I got one of the guys from the workshop over and he had a proper good look - the only place he reckoned on was removing the pretend stove at the stern but even then, not ideal and no obvious route for the water. Unfortunately it's a no go I'm afraid and the search continues. Certainly not put off by a Gardener 2LW though. I did smack my head numerous times in the engine room cos I'm 6ft. Was good to meet Bumble in the flesh though too.

Someone has to do all the work there...

Same again today with possible thunderstorms SE and Midlands later.....back to the paddle boards... Oh, and 5.30 ish am this morning....

Oh sorry I meant I posted it on the wrong thread, I meant to post it on the one I had created not hijack a thread about a TV programme telling everyone about a boat I'd bought.

Or might be M5 (5mm diameter) with a thread pitch of (I think) 0.8mm. Assuming of course that it is a metric thread. X 20mm. Thread length on pan head screws is measured from the bottom of the head.

This is a subject without an answer. There are so many moored boats in unsuitable places that a deep draughted boat will move them anyway. Speed is in the eye of the offended person. When we loaded on a canal like the Oxford fishermen were always shouting about speed. Some chance of even 3 miles an hour but we shifted a lot of water just going along. I used to drop out of gear and then reverse up to the complainant which took some time to ask him what he said, then getting under way again would stir the mud up. Learn to tie up or move.

Drill out the hole on the lever. Get a local model engineer to make up a fitting like the standard one, but with a longer pin to suit the thicker lever. Or screw a meccano strip to the lever using a bolt into the tapped hole, then attach the standard fitting to the meccano strip.

Interesting aside to this is that I found my adblocker is happy to block specified files, so I can have a blank space in place of avatars that otherwise would upset my karma. Sorry, @bizzard @Jen-in-Wellies

Need to buy a better boat

No pressure then 🙂 On this day in 2005 River Clyde by Bowling Basin

Ah. Your getting to the bottom of it.

Are you going somewhere ?

English Rose,if it was me looking at this boat and I really wanted it,then after satisfying myself that the interior was ok and the engine started easily without too much smoke and clatter,it leaves the most important part,the hull.You may be able to negotiate a discount without a survey. I would get my overalls on roll up sleeves and lie beside the boat and run my hand along the hull as deep as possible along the full length. Does it feel as rough as a bear's backside on a frosty night,or nice and smooth.It will probably be somewhere in between.The baseplate you will have to guess. Without a survey,there is little else you can do. Buying or not is your choice depending on how risk averse you are. I know members of this forum will point out that all elderly boats feel rough below the waterline,but there is rough and really rough pitted hulls.

I had a worrying trip up the Trent in July 2019 where at both Gunthorpe and Holme the Vlokies ignored my instructions. This iron hulled boat weighs well in excess of 20 tonnes. I am not a frail or feeble individual but I am over 70. I always ask that the paddles are raised slowly as in a strong current i maybe unable to hold her against the lock wall causing her to swing forend first across the lock. At the these locks the volunteer ignored me and raised the paddles fast, presumably because they could and it made them feel good and the inevitable happened. Then the paddles have to be shut down and the penning started all over again, nevermind the danger and damage that could be caused. I complained to CRT but the report was never replied to other than to acknowledge its receipt.

High hedges legislation is a nonsense and overly complex mess, I don't know many tree officers who really want to work with it, I have no idea why the council used that bit of insanity to justify the felling but there you go. It's a one sided article that hints at a bigger reason for the felling... Use the area to meet up. BBQ under the trees. Kids climb the trees. I bet this has been an ongoing row with the neighbours for so long the council has basically said FFS and just decided to fell the trees to shut everyone up. I also bet they will plant some new ones and everyone will ignore them, they will get vandalised and the locals will complain to the newspapers again. Is it hot today or is it just me?

Almost certainly RCR/RCD compliant, so the maximum number should be on the RCR/RCD plate. Probably six. Anything more risks the insurance and LeBoat's wrath. If by some faint chance an EA patrol boat is about or in a lock, the EA may have something to say as well. Check with the LeBoat. If I am right about the RCR/RCD you might be committing a criminal act if you exceed the plated number. However, I doubt anything would happen unless there was an accident or a report for speeding/rowdy behaviour.

If I have to drop out of gear I lose steering and then likely to hit you so better I keep in gear and go past at 2mph. If a boat is tied up properly then 2mph isn't going to make it bounce around.

I think it is time you found something else to do Col. All you seem to do is complain. Perhaps boating isn't for you anymore?

Thanks Richard- and apologies to the OP if this is sidetracking the thread a bit, but it is an important related issue. I was desperate to get my charging setup running asap so that I could leave the marina and go cruising, so I went for a quick fix with the B2B (yes, its a Sterling!)- but in truth the alternator is always going to be a significant limitation. I think its rated at 100amps, but there are two of them and it could be the 70amp one, I cant be 100% sure. I think the reason I'm seeing less than 50amps into the lithiums might be because some charge is going into the 'source' battery, which is a knackered lead acid (which I'll be replacing soon). If I go for the next model, say the 80 amp version, its possible my alternator will get really hot pushing out that much current, so I'm hanging fire on a charging fix until a professional (who has good knowledge of lithiums) has taken a look at things. I suspect there's not much more I can safely get from my current alternator, so I'm hoping that replacing the source battery will improve things for now.

Even when viewd on 'private' it is now showing the train - it looks as if it is actually the picture that has been molested.

Stormy sky at Chaumont 2014.The town is up a very steep hill.

1. Alternators are designed to get hot, they should be happy running so hot you won't hold your hand on them. The inside is forced air cooled, but the outside relies on radiation and convection, so will get hot. 2. Unless you change to lithium batteries, and that will really cost, any hope of fully charging lead acids in an hour or so is not going to work. With lead acids the largest alternator you can imagine is likely to spend most of the charge time delivering only a few amps. It's batteries that control the charging amps after a short while, not the alternator, and that way lead acids work makes them refuse high charging currents for most of the charging time.

Thank you that is very good information. When I rang MC the lady said categorically they don't take old ones. This gives me something to challenge them with if they say no at the counter. I'll update in a couple of days with the response. Mine still works and free to a good home but there's no takers so far